Selecta ex Aeliano

and lived with them simply, passing the entire day in their company, so that the strangers were delighted by the man’s character. He made no mention of the Academy nor of Socrates. Yet, by this very behavior, he revealed to them that he was called Plato. When they arrived in Athens, he welcomed them very hospitably. The strangers said, "Come, show us your namesake, the student of Socrates, and lead us to his Academy, and introduce us to the man, so that we might benefit something from him." He smiled quietly, as was his habit, and said, "But I myself am that man." They were astonished that, having spent so much time with him, they had failed to recognize him, as he had associated with them without arrogance or affectation, showing that he could charm his companions even without his usual discourses.

XXIV. (Book 4, 18.)

When Plato came down to Sicily, summoned by the many and repeated letters of Dionysius, the younger Dionysius himself took him up into his chariot, acting as the driver and taking the son of Ariston Plato as his passenger. It is said that a witty Syracusan, not unlearned in the works of Homer, was delighted by this sight and quoted these lines from the Iliad, having altered them slightly:

The great oak axle groaned aloud

Beneath the weight; for it bore a mortal, and a man most excellent.

Since Dionysius was suspicious of everyone, he nonetheless held Plato in such reverence that he was the only one to enter his presence without being searched, even though he knew that Plato was an intimate friend of Dion to the highest degree.